Creating a unique company culture and employee experience has always been a priority for Pendo, but we’ve been focused this year on promoting diversity and inclusion and providing learning and development opportunities for employees.

Inc. calls out Pendo’s four affinity groups, born out of its diversity committee. These groups meet monthly for conversation and learning, and plan ways to engage in the broader community. Over the past year, we’ve hosted a community and careers night meant to attract a diverse group of jobseekers, planned a “Climbing the Tech Ladder” event for women, and led a panel for LGBTQ people in tech. This month, Pendo is hosting a clothing drive for Dress for Success and sponsoring and participating in the Run for Love 5K in downtown Raleigh.

Pendo has recently expanded its people team to include roles focused on employee development, employee experience and culture, and office experience. We also won a grant from the state of North Carolina to provide training and development opportunities to employees. Those programs begin July 1.

The annual list, live now at Inc.com and on newsstands May 28 in the June 2019 issue, is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of private American companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits. Collecting data on nearly 2,000 submissions, Inc. singled out 346 finalists.

Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Omaha’s Quantum Workplace, on topics including trust, management effectiveness, perks, and confidence in the future. Inc. gathered, analyzed, and audited the data. Then we ranked all the employers using a composite score of survey results. This year, 74.2 percent of surveyed employees were engaged by their work—besting last year’s 72.1 percent.

According to Inc., the strongest engagement scores came from companies that prioritize the most human elements of work. These companies are leading the way in employee recognition, performance , and diversity. It’s a different playbook from a decade ago, when too many firms used the same template: free food, open work environments, and artifacts of “fun.”